An IC tag, in which an IC chip and an antenna are interposed between two thin sheets, has recently been used as a medium for storing information. The IC tag has many advantages. For example, much information can be stored in the IC tag and information can be read out from the IC tag without contacting it. Thanks to these advantages, the IC tag is widely utilized in commodity management, physical distribution management, etc.
When using an IC tag in commodity management, physical distribution management, etc., it is normally attached to a commodity to be managed by an adhesive such as paste, double-coated tape, etc., whereby information stored in the IC tag is tied to the commodity. Because of this, if an IC tag is detached and it is attached to another commodity, the corresponding relationship between a commodity and information will be impaired. Hence, for example, in a technique disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-167240, when an IC tag attached once to a commodity is detached, it is destroyed so that the corresponding relationship between a commodity and information is not impaired.
In the above-described conventional technique, an IC tag is used only once and then it is thrown away. However, an IC tag can be used many times if it is rewritten from old information to new information, so it is wasteful to discard it without reusing. One IC tag is cheap, but if a great number of IC tags are used and all are discarded, the cost cannot be ignored. Because of this, depending on users, there is a demand for collecting and reusing IC tags used in order to reduce costs.
In order to collect an IC tag, it must be detached from a commodity to which it is attached. In most cases, an IC tag is attached to not a commodity itself but the packing paper or corrugated cardboard box, or a paper sheet such as a mount. The operation of detaching an IC tag from a paper sheet is performed by hand, and it is forcibly separated from the adhesive surface of a paper sheet. As in the above-described prior art, in the case where an IC will be damaged if it is separated by force, it is necessary to detach it so that it is not damaged.
In the case where IC tags are detached and collected by hand, as described above, there is a limit to the number of tags to be processed per person. Therefore, if the number of IC tags to be processed is increased, the number of persons increases accordingly. However, an increase in the number of persons increases lobar cost and often counterbalances the advantage of cost reduction to be obtained by collecting and reusing IC tags. For that reason, users who desire to collect and reuse IC tags require a method of efficiently detaching and collecting IC tags from a large quantity of paper sheets to which they are attached.